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from Ampersand Etcetera 2001-15 (8.31.2001) written by Jeremy Keens
http://ampersandetc.virtualave.net/ampersand.html & jeremy@pretentious.net
Mollusk - Accretions [Fou.14] The Foundry/Hypnos
Mollusk (Malcolm Bly) first hit last year when he created a website where for his works in MP3 format - appropriately as his method and aesthetic was to explore the compressed format. Obviously The Foundry were impressed, and this is his first standard format release (shades of Zammuto). It includes much of his web-album, some remastered to take advantage of the sound resolution, some retaining the MP3 grittiness and a couple of new pieces (and again, the missing bits and some new ones are available at The Foundry).
The album falls neatly (for the reviewer) into three parts, the first a suite of three liquid pieces. 'The sea' offers the first glimpse of Bly's vision, exemplified by the names, which is of an aquatic ambience. In the background of the piece a scraping pulse is slowly rolling, but it is indistinct like some poorly recorded environmental sounds. Floating over the surface are skittering little pulses, distorted melodies (some quite distinct), tones and sounds, that ebb and flow (aquatic metaphors seem so appropriate). This decentred sea is an interesting place, and you shift from feeling submerged and distant noises passing to you to floating over the surface listening to the wind. In 'Argonautica: three' (with Jonathan Hughes) we realise that the nautilus are communicating: threr is a chirruping sound throughout the track, supported by softerringing, metallic and drifting tones which keep us submerged. Another new piece 'Barnacle: archipelago' is a slow and melodic based on long tones and strings, with wosshing breaks, layering like deposits of sand, tidal cycles determine the density, and there is a distinct water sound near the end. In his notes Bly says that the two Barnacle tracks are based on the same samples, and with the information that 'The sea' is based on Debussy, there seem to be classical i/allusions here.
The six parts of the 'Evolution of the Snail's Brain' are the central component, and were originally at a higher bitrate to capture their density - this is more along the microwave/glitch line and less immediately sub-aquatic (although part 3 has some more mollusky chatters). Pulsing and whooshes (part 1), burbling tones emerge from dark rumblings (part 2, where a very low throb gradually increases pitch and speed to beomce a modulating modemmelody before slowing and subsiding again: a whale rising for air?), whistling and singing pass through the soundspace (part 4, gentle and squirly), overtone drones, sometimes subtle and quiet at others it is forceful and aggressive with piercing high pitches and eruptions of sound, particularly the final part (the evolved brain?) where a deep dense minimal reverberating tone cloud has vicious soundspikes. A complex piece that seems composed from noises dragged from the computer, and yet strangely organic in its shifts.
The last three tracks are a faster view of the creatures. 'Hadal' is a bubbling spring, offering a tighter focus through murky waters. 'Barnacle: island' is also in water which is less clear, louder and faster than the archipelago (though you can hear the relationship), with chittering over energetic deep pulses and wooshy big tones. Before 'The cry of the distant nautilus' becomes more abstract and angular, long mournful tones appended with chattering telephonic pulses giving final voice to the mollusk.
Overall quite a disorienting sound created by Bly - while the muddiness of the original low-bit rate pieces has been reduced the mood remains, and it is great to have this crisp release and the new pieces. A distinctive new voice who has been able to maintain his vision in this further exploration of the nautilus¹ environment.
[see also Jeremy's comments on our first releases here, and on our chapbooks here, and on Seofon's Zero Point here]